Protests

I don't do organized protests. In the 1960s, I didn't participate in civil rights demonstrations because I was a teenaged racist, and I skipped the anti-war protests because I was in training to be an army officer. In the 1970s, I was trying to get my career off the ground, and in the 1980s and 1990s, my career was running me into the ground and I didn't have enough energy to follow the news carefully, much less organize a protest movement or join one.

Now I'm a retired civil servant. Compared to everything that preceded retirement, my life these days is pretty uncomplicated. Someone wise once said that life does not begin at the moment of conception or the moment of birth -- it begins when your kids move out and the dog dies. So far, that's been true in my own experience. I have a variety of hobbies that keep my mind occupied, including writing five separate blogs, and I don't need to join a protest to avoid boredom. For most of the past twenty years, my plan has been to concentrate on things I can control and waste as little time and energy as possible on things I can't control.

Since Obama was elected, two protest movements have popped up. The tea party appeals to geezers who don't have enough hobbies to keep their minds occupied, and hasn't accomplished anything other than sending more assholes to congress to make a bad situation even worse. The newest protest is called Occupy Wall Street, and I've only recently started paying attention to what they're up to. I don't do protests but if I did, the odds are good that I'd join Occupy Wall Street instead of the tea people.